Animals: Tradition - Philosophy - Religion

Anthropomorphism and Sentimentality:
Flawed Rhetoric Harming Animals

By Mike Jaynes

As an animal rights writer and activist, I'm often shocked by the amount
of apathy concerning animals I encounter. There seems to be the belief that
animals are used for food and that's just how it is and softies like me
should just be men and understand that's how the world works. I find myself
doubtful these people can actually believe this, that they are truly this
callous. Often concern and regard for animal wellbeing is written off as
sentimentalism or overly romanticized anthropomorphism. And this
anthropomorphism is the subject of this small article. My argument is that
the very concept of anthropomorphism is flawed and what is regarded as
sentimentalism is actually cold hard logic and that we have failed in our
duty to be compassionate caretakers of the planet and its amazing animal
life.

Anthropomorphism is generally defined as the attribution of human
motivation, characteristics, or behavior to inanimate objects, animals, or
natural phenomena. To lump animals in with inanimate objects and natural
phenomena seems flawed to me. Having central nervous systems and the ability
to feel pain, regardless of Descartes' insanity, and very developed
consciousnesses, it seems animals deserve more than being piled in with
inanimate objects and natural phenomena. But to me, the discussion of the
human world and the animal world seems moot. What are humans but highly
evolved naked primates. Yes, most humans believe in some sort of God and I
am among them; however, to assume that we are in a completely different
world than the animals God created seems the heights of puerile arrogance.
To assume human motivation, characteristics, and behavior are somehow
separate from animal counterparts is misguided. To me, it is only the animal
world. Human and non human animals have coexisted on this earth for millions
of years and it is of late that we are running roughshod over the whole rest
of our animal brethren. Also, I am not saying humans and all animals are
equal or should be considered equal the same way I do not believe all
animals are equal. Some animals are smarter, better equipped, and kinder
than others. Varying levels of intelligence also exist in the animal world.
Humans seem to have the most developed sense of reason and intelligence of
all the world's animals, as far as we can tell. Therefore, the whole idea of
anthropomorphism the realists of the world warn us against seems
fundamentally flawed if one does not recognize a distinct hierarchical
divide between humans and the remainder of the world's animals. It's not
necessarily that animals have human characteristics and behaviors; it's that
humans have animal characteristics and behaviors.

The animal rights writer Steven M. Wise has much to say on the issue of
factory farming and other aspects of the animal rights world. He says more
than ten billion non human animals are annually slaughtered for human food
in the United States alone. Hunting, biomedical research, entertainment,
clothing, fur, leather, suede, and other human activities constantly
contribute to the destruction of animals. Wise also points out that "over
three hundred mammals and birds die each time your heart beats" (Wise 1). My
argument is simple; if we are the most sentient and intelligent animal on
the planet, why can we not be good stewards of the earth? The answer is
easy: fear.

Human are scared to change the way they live. In order to care for
animals, one must give up things; one must alter one's life in significant
ways. Adopting as close to a plant based diet as possible means one has to
give up hamburgers, chicken fingers, ribs, and veal. It means one can't take
the kids fishing for some outdated patriarchal bonding blood sport ritual.
And to change one's ways, one has to make a significant commitment. It is
easy to run through fast food lines and pick up some processed meat product
for a quick bite. It's easy and doesn't take any time at all. As a result,
no doubt, one can easily observe the fast spreading waistline and hips of
the average American. After one gets educated on the horrors of mass
confinement factory farming, one must change. No rational sane person could
witness the standard confinement and slaughtering practices of American
factory farm abattoirs and not make a change. So people violently refuse to
witness the undercover investigative videos that are available. People don't
want to change; they can't be troubled. Therefore the billion dollar meat
industry continues to roll with its spokes alternately greased by its
consumers' money and apathy.

And then people hold up the misguided mistranslation of the word dominion
as some sort of cosmic ordering system approved by God himself. Being a
Christian myself, I urge Christians to consider the word dominion and what
it means when God gives Man dominion over the animals. To have dominion over
something is to be in charge of its well being. We are called to be
caretakers of the planet's animals; we are not given free reign to slaughter
them in the billions, to abuse them in our homes by making companion animals
live on chains their entire lives, or to abuse them in Tyson chicken plants
in their last few minutes before their short miserable lives end. Parents
have dominion over their children, and no one would permit someone to
torture and eat their children. Also, the Queen of England has dominion over
her subjects and this does not mean she can abuse them at any whim of fancy
she may have. If you believe in the Judeo-Christian bible, it calls for you
to be peaceful stewards and caretakers of animals. Even farm animals were to
be rested on the Sabbath and it is suggested that a good man is kind to his
beast while a wicked man is not.

So, didn't God give us the right to eat animals? That's a question not
easily answered. In Genesis 1:28-30 it is clear humans were originally
directed to maintain a vegetarian diet. However, man sinned and after the
fall new things were put in place. Later, certain animals were declared as
food. My argument is similar to others I have read before: Perhaps God did
allow Man to eat animals when there was no other way mankind could receive
the protein and nutrients he needed. However, we now have the technology to
provide a wide array of meat-less products and meat substitutes that not
only adequately sustain us, but sustain us healthier. The point is that even
if God gave us permission to eat some animals, he does not require us to.
And now that we have the technology and nutritional knowledge to survive
without slaying our animal brethren for food, it seems a shameful waste and
crime to continue to do so. And surely God never meant for his creatures to
undergo what the billions of animals go through every year in the American
mass confinement factory farms where 82,000 pigs, 130,000 cattle, and 1.2
million chickens a day are killed in some of the rankest and most inhumane
conditions imaginable. What it has come to is the work of man, the work of
evil. For a complete discussion and overview of Man's dominion over animals,
I highly recommend Matthew Scully's beautiful and terrifying book Dominion:
the Power of Man, the Suffering of Animals, and the Call to Mercy.

Even though public interest in factory farming is being raised due to
investigative videos and activism, a huge majority of people still do not
feel for the plight of the animals. These moral norms which treat animals as
property and see animals as somehow less important than human beings remain
powerfully embedded in the human subconscious. Wise and other animal
ethicists have pointed out that our moral norms that have changed for the
better (norms regarding race, non-marital sex, contraception, suicide,
feminism, homosexuality) have not changed as a result of philosophers, but
as a result of passionately committed activists. Martin Luther King, Jr. did
not trade highly erudite papers with his academic peers in highly jargonized
and respected journals; he took to action and changed the world. Many of the
most influential feminists have not been philosophers or academics. It is
the people of action who will stir the collective mass of humanity toward
permanent and positive moral change. Philosophy does not cause change,
Steven Wise says, it follows it. I truly believe the way to actually change
the world for animals is to adopt as close to a pure vegetarian lifestyle as
possible and to actively write, think, protest, and tell people about
animals who are suffering right now, unseen by us and in sheer agony.

So now we are active and we remain active and we are pulling the
machinery of hatred and abuse toward animals down around us in great flaming
walls of glory. After the fact, after animals are afforded rights and
intrinsic value, we can let the philosophers come in and analyze what all
this meant. As for now, please tell someone about what the factory farming
meat industry does to animals. Tell someone how anthropomorphism is faulty
due to its supposed delineation of the human and animal worlds. Live an
animal friendly life and use your reason to fight for, speak out about, and
try to educate people about the helpless animals dying at our uncaring human
hands. Never be silent about animal apathy and lastly, if anyone calls you
an idealist romantic who just doesn't understand how the big world works, or
even better, if they call you a sentimentalist, wear those words like a
badge. Be proud of your big and caring heart. And always remember the
animals.

Mike Jaynes is an emerging voice in the Animal Rights world. He teaches
English and Western Humanities at the University of Tennessee at
Chattanooga. His research interests include Animal Rights, Animal Ethics,
Bio-Conservation, Greek Mythology, Ufology, Tom Robbins, and the Embraced
Rogue. His academic and creative writing has run the gamut from editorial to
cover story in peer reviewed journals, nationally circulated magazines,
newspapers, ejournals, and books including UFO Magazine, Animals' Voice
Magazine, Animal Liberation Front: Worldwide News and Information Resource
on the A.L.F., The Animal Rescue Site.com, All Creatures.org, Animal Rights
Militia, Farmhouse Magazine, The Riverwalk Journal, Eureka Studies in
Teaching Short Fiction, Aalst Magazine (U.K.), Raunchland, the Central
California Poetry Review, and others. He has been interviewed by university
Ph.D. programs regarding Bio-Conservation and has made radio appearances
speaking on behalf of animal rights and the decline of human compassion.